Anonymous Letter Discussion and General Kurt Sonntags rebuttal (MERGED)

Just read the article as well as the anonymous email. The whole thing makes me cringe. A comment I made on another thread seems to hold true. In that it would seem as if ALL the standards were being lowered incrementally. Specifically, the integrity and character quality of the SOF troops currently in training or in a group. I am referring to the increased incidents of fratricide amongst SOF operators. I mean if a guy pulls a knife out on an instructor. I would think he would at least earn the Big Chicken Dinner!

I can remember back to '79 when I had an H4 contract on the DEP. My SAI in JROTC was Lt. Col. Robert Luttrell (SF) and there were a handful of us that got that contract. He personally took it upon himself to ensure that we were prepared . To not only meet the physical rigors of selection. But, to ALWAYS maintain the integrity that made his beloved Green Beret special.

In March of 2012 I was having a conversation with Col. Tobin at McCarran international. In which we discussed some of the issues which this article addresses. Particularly the lowering of standards to build numbers.

I never attended day one of SFAS, so I know shit from shinola. When it comes down to a large part of the inner workings of attending the "Q" or being in group. So these are just some thoughts and opinions.
I know that SF will bounce back better than ever. It's a fucking shame that this was not looked into sooner.

BTW: SFAS didn't even exist when I signed up. We attended a 2 week program the last summer after graduation. Where as a 17 year old senior. I learned a lot about myself as well as really understanding. The potential, we all had, to really contribute to the community. Col. Luttrell organized it. He cooked it up with people he knew at the Kennedy center. I'm not positive who was watching us. But, we were told we were being "assessed" during this time after we finished.
 
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That's wild. I'd mostly ignored the noise surrounding lowering of standards but those numbers and anecdotes really speak volumes.

A dude got mad in Robin Sage, "killed" his entire G force with blanks and he STILL graduated? If he can't keep his emotions under check in a training environment wtf is this guy going to do when he's in a war zone?
 
I think land nav is still a very necessary skill, despite GPS, especially for small teams operating independently.

Its almost like Humans that know how to land navigate are more important than hardware that is useless without a trained operator.
It also sounds like you are suggesting that the Quality of a small team operating independently is better than a large Quantity of troops without direction.
Those are interesting concepts - come to think of it - I would think that Special Operations Forces like the type your post describes, cannot be mass produced. I certainly hope that the folks in this article feel the same way because Competent Special Operations Forces that are able to work in small teams and operate independently cannot be created after emergencies occur.

...for now though - the SWCS should just focus on getting their graduation numbers up.
 
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